Thinking about it, even if China puts maximum pressure on Kim Jung-Un and he agrees to come to the bargaining table, it's too late for the US to go along with another delaying action / appeasement deal. N. Korea is way too close to achieving their desired nuke-tipped ICBM, which might only be 6-12 months away. The US can't agree to anything less than Kim Jung-Un dismantling his program and allowing international inspections for verification. The odds of him agreeing to that are extremely slim.
The dwindling options include -
1) More sanctions - N. Korea reportedly only brought in $3 bil in annual trade revenue, and the latest sanctions (which China and Russia agreed to) reduced that down to $2 bil. The next sanctions could drop it to zero, but that's about all the remaining leverage available via the sanction route.
2) China engineers regime change in N Korea - This seems unlikely, but may be the only way to avoid a shooting war. The Chinese could install a new N Korean leader, and the US would demand and get the removal of the nuclear program.
3) US/China/Russia present a strong unified front against Kim Jung-Un - That would be great, but it still doesn't remove N. Korea's nuclear threat. The US can only be satisfied if that existential threat is removed, since otherwise in 6-12 months the mushroom clouds could appear over Seattle and LA.
But from what Rickards says, the Deep State may have already decided on war as the only solution, and are currently making the preparations. The opening salvo could be when the US is forced to shoot down a N Korean test missile, and then the retaliation begins and it's all out war. But many of N. Korea's missiles are on mobile launchers, so good luck getting them all in the first strike. This war will likely mean millions of dead South + North Koreans and Japanese, and the US still has to destroy the North's nuclear program, much of which is in deep underground bunkers, and that means occupying the country. So this is a nightmare scenario, but how to avoid it??
